Notes

How would I look with red hair?

Last updated: 22 August 2026

Matching one of six red families to your own undertone matters, since red fades faster than most hair colours and often needs a lift first.

Whether red suits you depends on matching one of six red families, true red, auburn, copper, strawberry blonde, burgundy or ginger, to your own undertone, then accepting two things almost nobody mentions before you book: red fades faster than most other hair colours, and going red from dark hair is rarely a single appointment.

The six reds, matched to undertone

Reds are not one colour with variations. They are six different families, and each one asks for a different starting point and a different level of upkeep.

Which red suits a warm undertone?

Four of the six. Auburn, copper, ginger and strawberry blonde are all built on a golden base, and a warm undertone is what lets one of them read as a colour instead of a costume. True red goes either way, since full saturation overrides undertone. Burgundy is the one red built for someone who is not warm.

Which red suits a cool or neutral undertone?

Burgundy first, and true red as the fashion option, since both carry violet rather than gold. Put a warm auburn or copper on cool or neutral skin and it tends to read more orange in daylight than expected, because there is no underlying warmth in the skin to balance the warmth going on top of the hair. Neutral undertones have the widest opening here and can usually take burgundy, auburn or ginger and let starting depth decide instead of temperature.

Two things nobody tells you before you book

Why does red hair fade faster than other colours?

Molecule size is the usual explanation colourists give. Every hair dye pigment has to pass through the cuticle and settle in the cortex underneath, and the pigments used to build red are generally larger than the ones used in most browns and blacks. Larger pigment molecules do not lodge as securely, so they tend to wash out faster: a blue-black can hold for months while a vivid copper looks tired within weeks, even with equal care. The fade is not even either. Whatever pigment washes out fastest is whatever was mixed lightest into the formula, so what is left behind afterward is usually warmer and flatter than the shade on the box.

Do you have to bleach your hair to go red?

If your hair is naturally dark and you want copper, strawberry blonde, ginger or true red, you will usually need to lighten it first. All four of those read lighter than most people's natural depth, and a light pigment laid over dark natural pigment tends to lose, so the red shows up muddy or barely shows at all. Getting close to the shade on the box usually means lightening the hair first, with bleach or a high-lift permanent colour, before the red goes on top. That is two chemical processes where a single all-over brown is one. Colourists commonly book it as two separate appointments, because they want to see what the hair does under the lift before committing a tone over it, and lightening costs the hair more than a deposit-only colour does. Auburn and burgundy are the exception: both sit close to a natural brunette depth, so most people whose hair is already a natural mid-brown to dark brown can get either colour in one visit with no lift at all.

What each red fades toward

This is the part a swatch never shows: not the colour on day one, but the colour it settles into as it washes out.

The pattern holds across all six: the lighter and brighter the red starts, the faster it tends to move, and it moves toward warm and flat rather than toward nothing. Burgundy and auburn shift the least because they started closest to a natural depth. The other four are colours you are renting, not owning outright.

Seeing the colour before the appointment

Can I see red hair on my own face before I book it?

Looksmith renders hair colour and dye placement onto your own photograph, so you can look at a full copper or a single auburn face-framing piece before you sit through a lift and a tone. Use Create Look to describe the shade in words, or Mirror a Look to hand it a photograph of a red you already like and let it transfer that colour onto your own face instead of a stranger's. Looksmith changes colour and placement only, never length, layers, parting or a fringe, so what you are judging is the shade and not a different haircut. Looksmith renders a look in roughly a minute, the first six looks are free, and after that Looksmith runs on credits bought in packs, with no subscription. Looksmith is an app from Mirable Labs, Inc., coming soon to iOS.

What can a render not tell me?

Looksmith paints the colour at its best moment, the day it goes on, because that is the photograph it has to work with. It cannot show you the peachy fade of a copper a month in, or the flatter brown a burgundy settles into over time, and it has no way to know whether your hair needs a lift to get there or what that lift will cost your hair's condition. Looksmith is a read on the shade, not a rulebook for the appointment. Take the render to the consultation and ask the colourist the two questions it cannot answer: what depth is my hair starting from, and what does keeping this red cost every few weeks.

The decision that actually matters

Pick the red from the row that matches your undertone, then decide by the maintenance column, not the mood board. Burgundy and auburn are the two reds built to last on hair that already sits close to their target: one appointment, a normal gloss schedule, a fade that stays a shade of itself. Copper, strawberry blonde, ginger and true red are a different commitment, a lift, a separate visit, and a fade that shows within weeks. Both are legitimate reasons to choose a red. Only one of them is a colour you can decide on with a single photograph, and the other is a colour you are also deciding to keep booking.